The High School Years
by 2sweet2B4gtn
Summary: Max, Angel, and Ella are the new kids in town. They go to school with the rest of the flock and think life's just normal high school until things change for the worse. Bad summary because they don't give you enough space. Full summary inside.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, as I promised, here's Chapter 1! For those of you who are new readers, I had orignally put this under a different name, and the story was way different, but after re-reading the series, I realized how naive and bad it was and decided to re-write it. The other story**_**, **_**which I think is called **_**FAX, **_**or something like that, will be up until Tuesday, May 11 2010 for people to decide which is better. Anyways, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I will never ever EVER own Maximum Ride *starts wheeping in a corner***

Full Summary:

Max, Angel, and Ella are new in town when they form close bonds with their neighbors: Fang, Iggy, Gazzy, and Nudge. Then school starts and some weird things happen- but hey! that's high school. But is it? There's a conspiracy underfoot. Will the 'flock' put together the puzzle pieces before it's too late? Will Max and Fang end up together? Think this story is going to be a happy ending? Well let me tell you one thing: I HATE happy endings (not that I'm emo or something) and LOVE it when an important character dies (not that I'm creepy or something).

Fang POV

"AAGH MOM!!" I yelled as she tried to tame the jungle that is my hair. My brothers Iggy and Gazzy giggled quietly, but they quieted as I shot them a look that said: _You just wait, its your turn next. _

_"_Come on Fang, we're almost done. Don't be such a baby," my mom replied, humor in her voice.

We were getting all prettied up because our new neighbors had called us over for dinner. Iggy was excited because there were 2 girls our age, 15. Let me tell you, for a blind guy, he's a real ladies man. I've got my own girlfriend, Bridget, so there was really nothing I had to look forward to.

While Mom teared apart our hair, Nudge, my sister (13), was lucky and got the privilege to get ready by herself. When she finally came down, Mom had moved on to combing Gazzy's hair. It was one of those slo-mo beauty scenes, but it was wasted on us because we couldn't care less. Nudge was dressed in a strapless dress (big shock there) that went just above her knees. It was lavender with big blue and purple polka dots all over. She paired it with a black belt and black flats.

I, on the other hand, was dressed in a white dress shirt, my favorite hoodie, black skinny jeans and converse high tops. Iggy was basically the same, except he rolled up his sleeves, and didn't wear a jacket. Gazzy, who was 9, was wearing a black t-shirt that said 'Eagle Eye' (no reference to the movie) and had a creepy looking eagle staring right at you, a gray windbreaker and skinny jeans, and some Vans. I gotta say, we looked pretty cool, all that was missing was some Aviators.

"Mom! You look HOT!" Nudge said, seeing my mom all dressy. She was wearing one of those really long dresses that make it hard to walk without tripping. It was red, blue, and beige plaid on the bottom half, and plain beige on the upper half, divided my a belt- if any of that made sense. She was wearing a red-orage half sleeve cardigan, or whatever they're called, over it, and gold high heel strappy shoes that were hidden by the dress.

"Same to you Nudge. I didn't even know you owned that dress," my mom said, a little accusingly.

"Yeah, I bought it as soon as I heard 'party.'" Well there you have it. That's basically Nudge: fashion-obssessed and a complete girl. It gets annoying sometimes, but she's a good kid.

"All right guys," my mom said, standing up, "let's go."

Max POV

_And when I'm gone, Just carry on. Don't morn, rejoice every time you hear the sound of my voice..._

One of my favorite Eminem songs blasted from my iPod as I went about cleaning my room. I'd been at this for about an hour, but it seemed like the clothes and books just kept magically reappearing. Finally I got pissed, and decided that I was gonna win. So I turned off the music, grabbed a bunch of hangers, hung up all my clothes all mismatched, shoved all my books into the drawer, and squeezed all my CDs in the shelves. It took a grand total of 20 minutes.

After I finished I laid back down on my newly made bed, hair hanging off the edge like a waterfall, and turned my iPod back on. I swear that thing is my life. It calmed me down when I went into a rage, cheered me up when I was depressed, and put me to sleep every night. I had like 700 songs on it, and I can tell you Miley Cyrus or Jonas Brothers do not make up any of that number. My taste is kinda all over the place, with a few Ke$ha songs, lotsa Green Day and Eminem, The Fray, some Taylor Swift, and on and on.

"MAX, are you DONE!?" my mom yelled from downstairs. Yes, my name is Max-short for Maximum- and no I'm not a dude. But from my personality I might as well be. I'm definitely not like my 13-year old sister Angel, who has as many clothes as I have CDs.

"Yup, I just finished."

"Okay, come down and wear this dress I bought for you yesterday." One word echoed through my mind as I walked downstairs: dress. In my whole life, I've probably worn a dress once- Middle School Graduation.

I came down and saw the dress, and relaxed a little bit. Well, I didn't see the dress, I saw the bag in which the dress was in: Tilly's. _Well then it can't be THAT bad, can it?_ I thought to myself. I reached in the bag, and got out my dress. THANK GOD. No ruffles, no pink, no...poofy-ness. It was one of those pleated dresses with a high neckline that rests right on your neck (not like a turtleneck). It was black, with subtle purple zigzag things all over it. The dress went a little above knee. My mom saw my expression, a mix of relief and satisfaction, and was pleased.

"Hurry up and put it on, our guests will be here any minute now," my mom said, ushering me towards the bathroom. I was glad- I thought she'd make me put on jewelry.

My mom is awesome. She's really cool, and lets us- me, Angel, and Ella- do whatever because she knows we're responsible. Well..responsible in the sense we won't get drunk. She's also a GREAT cook, really pretty, funny, and a bunch of other things. Despite all that, she hasn't had the best luck in relationships. Angel and I are sisters, but not her biological children. Ella is, but her dad was murdered when she was like 2. We still don't know by who. After that, my mom stopped interaction with males (even gay ones) for a long period of time. Then Angel and I stumbled to her door (long story for another time) and she adopted us. With two more people joining Ella's cause, she finally convinced our mom to start dating guys again. She hooked up with a fellow vet, and they're happy relationship lasted 1 year. That's when he finally moved in and showed his true colors as the biggest jerk ever. He HATED kids, especially teens, which wasn't going to work out well since Ella and I had turned 13 that year. Mom kicked him out after about a week. Then she met another guy, and there was nothing wrong with him. He was really cool, and smart, but after a while they decided to call it quits because the relationship wasn't going anywhere. 4 more boyfriends later, my mom met Cameron Kendalls. He had the rugged looks of Josh Duhamel, and the charms of Ashton Kutcher. He was with the FBI so that only added points in my book. They were definitely in love, you can tell just by looking at them, so when Cam said he had to move to North Carolina, and asked us to join him, we happily agreed. He's still my mom's current boyfriend, and I think he might be popping the question soon. He wasn't joining us today, he was on the hunt for some fraud tax collector or something.

I finished dressing as Ella and Angel came down the stairs. They both looked beautiful, with their hair curled perfectly around their face. Ella was wearing a Greek-like dress that complimented her tan skin nicely. Angel had a sky blue sheer dress that matched her eyes. It was a little poofy, and was layered with a pale green underdress. She looked like a daze-y Alice in Wonderland. I felt awkward and ugly in comparison. My mom looked hot too. She had a midnight blue, silk-like strapless dress and her brunette hair was down for the first time in a while.

_DING-DONG. _And here we go.

**Howdya like it? Does it suck? I'm sorry if it sucks. Please review and tell me!! Or just review for the hell of it! I don't care...well I guess I kinda do... Here's the question of the chapter: What's your favorite band/singer?**


	2. A Little History Lesson

**:'(. I haven't gotten any reviews. The other story I posted got reviews after 2 hours. If it sucks, please take the 30 seconds it takes to review and tell me!! Anyways, here's the next chapter for those of you who care. I bet I sound so conceited right now. I'm sorry for that. :D**

**Disclaimer: As I am clearly not James Patterson (I'm a GIRL for one) I do not in anyway own Maximum Ride. **

Fang POV

We walked to their house quickly-it was another icy night in Charlotte (North Carolina)-and rang the doorbell. Ms. Martinez answered the door with a bright smile.

"Hi there! Thanks for coming. I'm Ms. Martinez." She was a pretty lady, with a tan-ish face and bright brown eyes. Her face had some laugh lines, and a couple of worry lines. In contrast, her daughter (though they looked nothing alike), Angel (as I learned later was her name), had curly blond hair and blue eyes. Your typical Californian, where they used to live.

"Where are those _other _girls Mom was telling us about?" Iggy whispered in my ear. Don't take him wrong- he's not some perverted girl chaser- but Iggy does love him some ladies.

I gave him a slight jab in the side as an answer.

"This is my daughter, Angel. She turned 13 a couple of months back."

Angel gave a shy smile and a wave of her hand. We all said 'hi' in unison. It's not that we're usually shy people, but you know how your meeting a complete stranger for the first time? How you don't know what to say, when to say it? We've all been there, maybe if your parents have had over some of their old friends and their families. Even Nudge- who, granted, gave out a more enthusiastic 'hi' than the others- and who can't ever shut her mouth- was at loss for words.

"Delighted to meet you Angel. You look just a-DORABLE! And you look lovely Valencia. Oh, and your garden is already blooming. I saw you taking care of it....." my mom droned on. I just rolled my eyes. God, I'm glad I'll never be a middle-aged mom.

"Oh thank you. You look great to, by the way," and then seeing our chattering teeth she added, "I'm sorry! Please, come in."

We stepped in and took off our shoes at the side of the doorway. The house was as large as and shaped like all the others in our neighborhood- two story, three little subdivisions. It also had a large glass atrium where their dining table was. The backyard was pretty huge, but had no swimming pool. Just a lot of grass, a flower border, and a high wall. The first thing I noticed was music coming from somewhere upstairs. I could barely hear it, so either the walls of the room were soundproofed, or the volume was turned REALLY low. Most normal humans wouldn't be able to hear it, but I was nowhere near your average human.

You see, I, along with my brothers and sister, was born in a creepy, most likely illegal, place called the Institute- I think it was somewhere in New York. Well, it didn't have a real name, but that was what we unhappy inhabitants called it- not sure why. It was filled with crazy mad scientists trying to 'help' the world by creating mutants from innocent little babies. Iggy, Gazzy, Nudge, and I specifically were injected with bird DNA, but there were other combinations: dog with human, human with spider, bat with.. you get the idea. So not only do they steal babies and give them no chance of a normal life, but once the baby grows up- and by that I mean becomes a toddler- the mad scientists uses him/her as a lab rat- doing painful (for the kid) experiments. For example, I remember on my 5th birthday, when the scientists came to get me, I was- naively- expecting them to take me to my birthday party- like the ones I'd seen on T.V. Instead they took me to a large room, filled with walls- a giant maze- and kept making me go through it. They'd try and push me to go faster, and when I slowed down, they'd shock me with the anklet they'd attached to my leg. I could only imagine how they treated the others.

They grouped us bird-kids together, and we lived with each other our entire lives, so we become closer than most siblings, though we're not actually related. Iggy and I had been at the School about 8 years (6 years for Nudge, 3 for Gazzy) when Jeb- the only scientist there with a heart- busted us out. He had always been nice to us- he was our teacher and our caretaker- and when he had to take experiments on us, he'd always try and erase as much pain as possible. When a depressed Nudge asked Jeb why he'd even joined the School, he said that he was a fresh Harvard graduate looking for a job and had no idea what he was getting himself into. Once you join the School there's no way out (other than death but...). Anyways, he'd arranged for us to fly (with our little birdie wings, not on a plane) to a small cabin house in some forest. Our escape was sketchy- we were all so scared we'd get caught, and then how would they torture us?- but I remember something about going out the main door. We said goodbye and thanks to Jeb, and flew to the vacation house with our genetically advanced sense of direction. It was the only house for miles, so finding it wasn't a problem. A lady was waiting for us there, our current mom, and we immediately caught a plane here- Charlotte- where she lived with her dog, Total. Iggy and I started school in 5th grade (4th-Nudge, K- Gazzy), and seeing how we had no prior experience, it wasn't the best year ever. The next year was easier though, and we realized that our intelligence had been altered too, for the better.

Anyways, back to current day.


End file.
